The Brownsville Recreation Center takes its name from the neighborhood that it serves. Brownsville, bounded by Eastern Parkway, Van Sinderen Avenue to the east, Linden Boulevard to the south, and Rockaway Parkway to the west, was first developed in 1865 by Charles S. Brown. Brown purchased a section of farm and meadowland and built 250 frame houses, hoping to lure the working class from lower Manhattan and western sections of Brooklyn to his modestly priced homes. Brown was certain that he would not be able to convince the bourgeoisie to relocate in “Brownsville,” as the area was to be called, because it was downwind of the odors from the marshes and bone-boiling factories of Jamaica Bay.